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Michael Kidson

British schoolmaster (1929–2015)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 22, 2025
Entity authorityQ20671983 ↗
Source-derived summary

Michael George MacDonald Kidson (24 August 1929 – 20 June 2015) was a British schoolmaster who taught history at Eton College. Among Kidson's pupils was former Prime Minister David Cameron.

Kidson was born in Belgravia, London. His parents separated when he was an infant and his father died a few years later. He was brought up in Shropshire by his grandfather until the age of seven. Following his grandfather's death he was placed into the care of the Royal Wolverhampton School, which at that time was a charitable institution for children who had lost one or both parents.

After five months' training at the Mons Officer Cadet School, Kidson served in the King's Shropshire Light Infantry as a national service officer, then went up to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he read economics and history. In 1956, he joined Shell as a graduate trainee, but soon moved into teaching, initially at Papplewick, a private school in Ascot, and then at Eton. He retired in 1994.

Commenting on Kidson, David Cameron said: "If he caught you napping, he’d throw this block of wood at your head ....

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Michael Kidson” is british schoolmaster (1929–2015). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Michael, Kidson and British, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1929, 2015, 1956, 1994—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1929-08-24. For this dossier, Michael, Kidson and British is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “british schoolmaster (1929–2015)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 22, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q20671983. VIAF identifies the subject as 2836153775048661550001. The Library of Congress control number is no2018123271. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1929, 2015, 1956 and 1994.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  2. Expand the search: follow Michael Kidson primary sources, Michael Kidson archive and Michael research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Michael Kidson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.